1. Field of the Invention
A technique disclosed in the present specification relates to a network apparatus which is capable of being connected to a network and with peripheral devices, and controls accesses to the peripheral devices from terminals on the network. More particularly, the technique relates to a network apparatus which is capable of reserving an access right to a peripheral device that is not yet connected to the apparatus, from one of the terminals on a network, and prevents the peripheral device from being accessed from other terminals on the network after the device has been connected to the apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Peripheral devices that are connected to an apparatus connected to a network and not having direct connection to the network are widely known. Such peripheral devices can be accessed from terminals on the network. In such peripheral devices, USBs and RS232Cs for example are often used as interfaces. In general, peripheral devices directly connected to a network can be accessed from plural terminals simultaneously through the network. However, each of the peripheral devices connected to the apparatus via a USB or the like only allow one-to-one access between the device itself and the apparatus accessing the device. In this specification, a peripheral device which makes one-to-one access between the device itself and an apparatus connected therewith is referred to as “single-access peripheral device” or, simply, “peripheral device”, in regards to the characteristic of such “peripheral device” not being able to accept simultaneous accesses from plural terminals. In addition, the term “access” as used in the specification refers to the transmission, e.g. sending and receiving, of data to and from a peripheral apparatus. In other words, “access” refers to communication between peripheral apparatus and terminal.
Such peripheral devices are each connected with a terminal capable of being connected to a network, and can be utilized by the other terminals on the network via the connected terminal; however, each of the peripheral devices cannot be accessed from plural terminals simultaneously and therefore, when the user of one terminal accesses the peripheral device, the users of the other terminals cannot access the peripheral device. For example, when the peripheral device is a scanner, there may be a case where a user inserts a document into the scanner, and while the user goes back to the place where his/her terminal is set, another user may operate the scanner before the initial user utilizes the scanner. To deal with such undesirable condition, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-236301 discloses an apparatus to which peripheral devices can be connected, and allows an access right reservation to one of the peripheral device for the user of the terminal. In the following, an apparatus capable of being connected to a network and to which peripheral devices can be connected is simply referred to as “network apparatus.”